Editor’s note: Texas Tech football coach Kliff Kingsbury doesn’t let freshmen do media interviews, so even though Davis Webb was one of the Red Raiders’ most prominent players last season, few outside the team knew what he was thinking. Tech beat writer Don Williams sat down with Webb recently for a conversation about a wide range of topics covering last season and the one to come.

A-J: What was it like for you last year, the drama with the quarterbacks that seemed to go on the entire season? From one week to the next, who was going to be the starter?

Webb: It prepared me for this year, for my whole life, because I’ve never dealt with so much adversity in sports. Hockey, I’ve never really had any adversity. I was pretty good throughout my playing career. Baseball, obviously, you have adversity. One day you go oh-for-3. The next day, you go 4 for 4.

That’s just a weird game there, baseball is. Golf is the same way. You have a lot of adversity.

Football was nothing like this year. I never really got told I was going to be the backup since seventh and eighth grade. Seventh grade, I was the B team backup quarterback. Eighth grade, I was the C team backup quarterback. And so that was a lot of adversity. I told myself ever since then I was never going to be a backup quarterback ever again.

And I never really was until then (last year). I was JV A backup, but I was playing a level up, so I didn’t really consider myself a backup. I played half the game. Sophomore year, I was just too skinny to play quarterback at the time. And then from my junior year, I was the starter ever since, and I came here expecting to play a little bit.

And then I thought I was the guy, I got a little too big-headed, and Baker (Mayfield) came and beat me out. It’s a credit to him. He beat me out, but I felt like if I ... I feel like I got a little too confident, just because I got basically given to me (the impression that) I was going to be the starting quarterback. I got told by a lot of people I was going to be the quarterback at Texas Tech, and I listened to a little too many people instead of just people around me and people who really care, who really matter.

A-J: Was there tension among you three guys (quarterbacks Webb, Mayfield and Michael Brewer) last year?

Webb: No. We still talk. We were really good friends, actually. I mean, Michael took me under his wing last year at this time. Once he got hurt, everybody felt for him. I was texting him every day, ‘How you doing?’ Not to see if I was going to be the starting quarterback, because we didn’t know who was going to be the starting quarterback, me and him didn’t.

We were really good friends, and Baker came in and fit along with us. Michael and him were already friends, obviously, coming from the same high school. But Baker came in and really jelled well with us.

All three of us text and snapchat and whatever on Twitter and text message. So yeah, we still have contact, but it’s weird, knowing I think there’s been like 10 quarterbacks I’ve met in the past year that are not here anymore.

A-J: So what did you think when you read what Baker said when he left and then what Michael said when he left? They both indicated they felt like there wasn’t good communication between them and Kliff (Kingsbury)?

Webb: Yeah, I don’t understand, really, why they said that, because coach Kingsbury, I believe, has the best open-door policy of anybody that I’ve ever come in contact with. He says, “If you have a problem with it, my door is always open. And that’s true.

I had a problem with it after the SMU game. I went in there and talked to him the day I got told I was going to be the backup. One thing I always do bad is I hold a grudge over people who don’t give me opportunities I feel like I need to (have). I did the same thing with my high school coach, and now we’re ... .

I’ve known my high school coach since I was born. ... I held a grudge on him for a year because my sophomore year I wasn’t starting quarterback. I felt like I needed to (be).

And I felt like I did (the same) for coach Kingsbury a little bit, but we talked every day about how I wasn’t the starting quarterback. It (Kingsbury’s message) was, how I “need to keep working” and my “potential’s so high.” “Don’t get beat up and let this affect what you do and how you grind every day.”

I’m thankful that coach Kingsbury talked to me and we communicated every single day. So I don’t feel like miscommunication was a big issue.

Seeing that was very alarming, that they would just say that, because they know and I know that he’s not like that.

A-J: A moment ago, you said, unless I misheard, that maybe one week to the next you didn’t know who was going to be the starting quarterback. Was that maybe — ?

Webb: No, no. He told us on Sunday, putting the game plan in. We don’t come in on Sundays, but the quarterbacks would to get film for that (week’s) opponent. He would tell us, “Baker’s going to get the reps tomorrow.” Or, “Davis is going to get the ones. Michael’s going to get the twos” or whatever.

We knew going in who was going to be the starting quarterback. That was never an issue. That’s very confusing, and it’s kind of disappointing they would say that about coach, who gave them opportunities, to say all that kind of stuff.

But yeah, we’re great friends. They left for whatever reason. But I don’t think miscommunication’s the reason.

A-J: Did you see what Baker did at Oklahoma in the spring game?

Webb: Yeah. I texted. Yeah, he did good. I don’t remember what the stats were on anybody. I don’t think he threw an incompletion. He did good. I think he had a good spring. That’s what my friends tell me at Oklahoma. I’m happy for him. But you know, we’re Texas Tech and we’ll see him here in Lubbock pretty soon.

Coming Thursday: Webb talks about the hardest hits he took last season and, with the Red Raiders’ shortage of quarterback depth, the need for him to stay healthy throughout next season.